raised bed fruit trees and berries?

amandasmith911(6 INDIANA)July 31, 2006

i want to plant black berries, raspberries and some dwarf fruit trees. my land is too "wet" to do so , so i thought a raised bed would help with drainage. i will build them this fall and plant next spring.

do you think old rear tractor tires painted white (with the botton left open) be large enough for drarf fruit trees?

what about balckberries and raspberries? would regular vehicle tires be big enough? if not, how big should the raised beds be?

Raspberries are likely to create runners and pop up outside the box. I did a slightly raised bed of compost, peat moss and clay and they are growing like crazy this first year. As for drawf fruit trees, afaik, the drawf part is the height potential of the root stock, not the root system. I think your proposed bed would be too small, but you are correct it would help with drainage.

I would be interested in what others think, and maybe could comment on having the roots of a tree higher up more exposed to frost...

The roots of trees will grow many times the height of the tree, so it won't be contained in your sqft anymore.

Is it possible that you can plant this tree on a slope so that there isn't standing water? That might help. I would think that if you made a large hole, used a 50% original soil/50% peat, you would have a good draining hole which is not so great that the tree's roots will circle around the hole.